W4B – Tired Old Tricks

When W4B submitted plans to build a power station at Portland Port, they declared that their primary fuel would be palm oil – an odd choice for a company claiming to be green. Palm oil has a reputation for rainforest destruction, land grabbing and human rights abuse. This led W4B to claim they wouldn’t use “food grade” palm oil, and later that they would use residues from the industry rather than virgin oil, claims which later fell by the wayside. They also said they were looking at jatropha oil and even had a representative of that industry speak at the planning meeting. Again, jatropha has been linked to land grabbing and diverting land from food production. W4B has been very quiet about using it since the dubious claims about its sustainability were used to get planning permission.

Now they are claiming that due to the current high price of palm oil they are looking at burning oil made from old tyres until the price of palm oil comes down. This announcement came just days after the government agreed to subsidise palm oil as a feed stock for power stations, despite fierce opposition from environmental and social justice groups. We feel that this is just another tactic to divert attention away from the strong arguments that have been made against their unsustainable and unwanted power station at Portland Port, and at the end of the day they will use whatever fuel is cheapest, regardless of the wider environmental costs or the cost to the health of residents living above the smoke stack.